Contact us

General enquiries

The quickest way to get in touch is by using our Live Chat service, provided by staff at The National Archives (not by bots). Select the ‘Live chat now’ icon on this page to open a chat session.

Open Tuesday to Saturday between 09:00 and 17:00, Live Chat allows our team to provide answers to your questions about all of our services and collections.

If you would like detailed advice about researching our collections, please refer to our online research guides or use our records and research enquiry service.

If you contact us by email, any personal information you send to us will be handled in accordance with our privacy policy.

Access & reading room services

Contact us with queries about visiting the reading rooms at The National Archives, reader ticket applications and document ordering, and requests for digital or paper copies of records.

Accessibility enquiries

If your online access is limited and you need to speak to someone about booking a visit to our reading rooms, you can call us during office hours on 020 3897 1575 – this isn’t a manned service, so leave your number and message and we’ll call you back. Please only call if you need to – our Live Chat service is much quicker and easier to use.

Advice on doing your research

Advice on the records we hold at The National Archives.

British citizenship

Compliments, complaints & comments

Send compliments, complaints and comments about our on site (at Kew) and online services. See our comments and complaints procedure.

Contact our partners

Feedback on our commercial partners’ online services, including Findmypast and Ancestry.

Donating records

What to do if you think have records or materials that should be placed in an archive.

Education service general enquiries

To contact us with queries about our education service and online educational resources, please email education@nationalarchives.gov.uk.

Freedom of Information

Request information about The National Archives under the Freedom of Information Act.

International collaboration

To contact us if you are an international archive, government or cultural body interested in collaborating with The National Archives, please email iea@nationalarchives.gov.uk.

Ministry of Defence service records

To request a Ministry of Defence service record, see the research guide for British Army soldiers in service after 1918. Find further information in the MOD service records collection FAQs (PDF, 0.1MB).

Public sector information

Contact us with your queries about Crown copyright, licensing and the re-use of government information.

Shop

See our FAQs for questions about your order. If you still need help, please email bookshop@nationalarchives.gov.uk.

Website

To contact us with queries about our website, not including advice about our catalogue, please email webmaster@nationalarchives.gov.uk.